On the PHPClasses.org blog there's a new post that tries to right some wrongs about how people think about PHP. Maunel Lemos looks at some of the misconceptions people have about the language and the truth behind them.

PHP is often a misunderstood language by people that either love or hate it. [...] This article attempts to clarify some of the most common wrong ideas that many developers have about PHP. Read the article to the end, so you may eventually start having a better perspective about PHP and take advantage of the opportunities that this language and the PHP ecosystem can provide you.

Among the misconceptions on the list, there's things like:

PHP cannot do X (access memory, control hardware devices, or some unusual purpose)

PHP is controlled by only one company (Zend)

PHP is worse than Ruby On Rails, Python Django, X language Framework

PHP is not good for high performance scalable Web sites or applications